Twitter

Twitter Updates

The Alliance

Blog Archive

Monday, November 7, 2011

Breeders' Cup (BC) Saturday is always one of the most exciting days of the year in thoroughbred racing. This year was no different, wherein 65,000 plus showed up to witness a rollercoaster ride of an afternoon.

Here are some thoughts as to Saturday's events and various pictures I took throughout the day. I was fortunate to be in the paddock for the BC Dirt Mile, one of my favorite races of the year, and on the rail for the BC Marathon and BC Mile for Goldikova's shot at history. I had fun live-blogging the event for The News all day long, so I didn't get much time to visit, although I caught up with The Bug Boys Crew, Frank from That's Amore, The Turk and Stacy Berge from Thoroughbred Legends Stables.

I missed my flight home on Sunday morning, but was able to get on the next available flight on standby, and as luck would have it, sat next to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin for the ride to Chicago-Midway before heading home to Buffalo. He was extremely nice to me and we shared a few laughs about Saturday's track conditions, Horse of the Year, Sheikh Mo and It's Tricky. Of course, we were off the record, so I'd have to kill you if I told you what he said. The guy is top notch all the way around.

So here are some of my preliminary thoughts before I barrage you with pictures taken with my wife's pink point and shoot.

Best Moment of the Day: When Caleb's Posse flew by me at the rail in the BC Dirt Mile overtaking a game Shackleford in the final furlong. In using an old Joe Hirsch phrase - "He was a bullet on four legs!"

Worst Moment of the Day: Union Rags drifting out in deep stretch after being caught 4-wide and unable to catch Hansen who wired the BC Juvenile. It not only blew up a decent Pick-3 play I had, but our joint Pick-4 ticket. I could punch myself in the face for not including him after touting him in last weekend's preview article in The News.

Most Disappointing:Uncle Mo stopped right where we thought he would.

Biggest Surprise: Court Vision's win at 64-1 caught more than a few of us off guard. There was more than one person also excited that he was not in the IEAH silks for that one. Afleet Again at 41-1 was a close second.

Funniest Moment of the Day: Jerry Bossert of the NY Daily News saying if Chantal would have nipped Mike Smith, the headline would have been "The Nutcracker."

Most Annoying Moment of the Day: I didn't have one.

Most Enjoyable Moment of the Day: Cashing a nice Pick-3 with Wrote-Amazombie-Regally Ready that paid for a lot of bad betting. If Grand Adventure comes in during the Turf Sprint, we would have been even happier, like $2,300 happier. Just have to remember the old mantra, "first you cash the ticket, then..."

1 Comment:

About Me

Gene Kershner - EquiSpace

A bean counter by trade, writing about horse racing is my passion. Entered the blogosphere in April 2008 and in October 2010 became the racing correspondent for The Buffalo News. In 2012, elected into the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association (NTWAB).